The blog of author Dennis Cooper

Author: DC (Page 35 of 1088)

Please welcome to the world … James Nulick Plastic Soul (Publication Studio)

 

‘The year is 2043. Wealthy elites are paying vast sums to have clones made of themselves, and Chrysalis Institute is happy to meet the demand.

‘But if a companion isn’t what you seek, the Institute offers other boutique services to help the old look young again, for a price…

Propelled by James Nulick’s lyrically innovative approach to slipstream fiction, Plastic Soul presents an incisive yet darkly comic vision of an irreversibly digitized future in which meaning has been traded for vanity. It is a future not far adrift from the world we presently inhabit—a future that haunts our present.— Publication Studio

 

‘The ideal career path for a novelist goes as follows: The first three decades of life are spent studying. During the fourth and fifth decades, the novelist publishes four novels which some associates consider to be ‘masterful.’ Then, just as the work begins to draw international attention, the novelist drives a speeding vehicle into oncoming traffic and dies.

‘The model for this ideal novel writing career is W.G. Sebald. And despite whatever opinions you may have or may want to have about Sebald’s novels, I think there is an important lesson here for novelists of my generation and every generation for the foreseeable future. Novels exist in a unique timeline separate from all other media. There is no meaningful correlation to novel writing mastery and hype cycles, end-of-year lists, or even an author’s life. There is no history that suggests rushing to publish (shitty) writing on the (repugnant) internet—or with whatever putrid automated publishing service—will one day cause others to perceive your novel writing as so-called masterful.

‘James Nulick, age fifty-four, seems to be quietly amassing a career where he publishes four masterful novels. I am counting three novels so far: Plastic Soul (released this past October), The Moon Down to Earth (2019), and Valencia (2016). Consistency counts for a lot. There is a unique and recognizable style evident across the two most recent novels and a handful of short stories. With Plastic Soul, Nulick asserts himself as a brand we can trust. Novelists should not be trusted unless they have a strong, consistent style. Many young novelists attempt to publish before they have a strong, consistent style and then wither and die. A young person withering and dying is not something I want to invest my readerly attention in. Even if in the end this type of young, inconsistent novelist goes on to join the pantheon of masterly novelists with an unmistakable strong, consistent style, someone like me may still come along at some later date and end up resenting that novelist after having read an early uncharacteristic novel published before the novelist really had any novel thing about them. There are many examples of inconsistent novels in the 20th century but for novels written back in those days, we must make some allowances. Back when the economy of novel writing was a much different thing than it is today. Back before all the labor had been automated out of publishing novels, replaced by software. Back when Faulkner was falling off his stool in Hollywood, and the up-and-coming pantheon of boomer novelists were just beginning to experiment with their fresh take on whatever the heck could come after modernism. Back before we had a seemingly endless number of novels to choose from at any given moment. Back when there were hungry families who were financially dependent upon the printers, and the typesetters, and the copyboys, and the designers, and the editors, and the ad men, and the distributors, and the shopkeepers, and so on, who were all involved in producing and selling a constant stream of novels to satisfy the reading public, whether those novels be consistent to a one-of-a-kind style or not. Because back in those days, people did not have some idiot machine that could spit out a terrible, yet amusing little movie rendition of every harebrained idea for a novel any nitwit typed into a text box to entertain himself on winter evenings. Back in those days, people needed novels to blanket the void in their souls that was exposed by silence. Silence that no longer exists. Back then, there was an economy around novel writing that supported inconsistent novels. Today, however, there is very little reason to publish an uncharacteristic, inconsistent novel, so I must demand consistency from even my young novelists. I must say, no, I will not read your novel until you prove yourself of strong novel writing characteristics that I can rely on! So thank the heavens for Nulick. Thank the heavens that after Plastic Soul, I am confident I can return to Nulick expecting a certain readerly experience. A readerly experience that I will only expect to evolve in a way that Nulick alone could make it evolve. Thank the heavens there is a novelist who I can trust in Nulick! Consistency counts for a lot, but consistency is the easy part. There also must be some readerly thing that compels a return within that consistent style. Something that gives rise to a compulsion that can usurp the desire to cover up the big gaping hole in your soul with a phone.’ –– Forrest Muelrath

 

PUBLICATION STUDIO
PAGES: 491
DIMENSIONS: 4.5″ × 6.75″ × 1″
IMPRINT: The Fellow Travelers Series

The author has also prepared a special Artist’s Edition of the book, with Patrick Kiley of PS Hudson.

Deluxe special edition link:
https://publicationstudio.biz/books/plastic-sould-artists-edition-preorder/

Regular edition:
https://publicationstudio.biz/books/plastic-soul/

James Nulick @ instagram
James Nulick @ goodreads

 

Sample:

Saturday afternoon, 7-Eleven

Saturday afternoon, me and Fernie ride our bikes to 7-Eleven, a five-minute ride from his house. Fernie opens the door ahead of me, his inevitable ding dong in perfect time with the door chime, ding dong Mr. 7-Eleven clerk, Fernie says to the clerk, chin bumping a friendly greeting to him, the clerk clutching his chest in mock heart attack, Uhh Ohh, it’s the Smothers Brothers. We stock up on the essentials… Doritos, Cheetos, and Donettes, things Mother would never allow me to eat, gathering supplies for a weekend of serious nesting. Hey bro, let me take a pic of you. Alright but no autographs, please. I take a pic of Fernie with my handheld, waxing the floor with his Vans, like a professional, his kneecaps exposed in his sliced up RVCA Daggers. You get the pic? Yeah, looks good. I turn the handheld in his direction. Don’t be choking your poultry to that pic. You’re dumb. Once we’re fully stocked, we head out the door, our plastic bags bulging like a couple of sugar high bank robbers. ding dong have a nice day Mr. 7-Eleven clerk, Fernie says, waving goodbye. Hey bro, did you see the clerk? He’s looking at us like these kids are total stoners. Oh god, is it that obvious? Fernie says, clutching his crucifix necklace in mock horror. Please don’t tell my mommy, I say, giggling. He’s cool—he’s just jelly because he’s working on a Saturday, Fernie says. He wishes he was us, he wants to be us, man! Yeah, no doubt! It would totally suck to work on a Saturday. He thinks we’re brothers. Well, ain’t we? Back on the slab in front of the store entrance, we turn our bikes over in tandem, a perfectly choreographed machine. I defer to Fernie, letting him lead, as he always does. We weave between cars parked on the street, getting super close but not enough for pinstripes. I nearly crash into a prehistoric old man getting out of a black BMW. Hey, watch it you punks, me and Fernie cracking up. We pass the shuttered movie theatre where we watched the movie about being thirteen when we were both thirteen, so long ago. Zigzagging between ticking beasts, my reflection perfect in the dusty shop glass window of PRELOVED FABRIC, long out of business. I wonder what that bitch is doing now, Fernie says, looking back at me, laughing. Probably blowing her fat gay boyfriend. You know it! A quick swoop to the left on Ashland, riding side by side, our path wide as a city bus, the pharmacy on our right, the stately funeral home on our left, looking more like an Ethan Allen furniture gallery than a place where the dead are prepped for eternity. That place creeps me out, Fernie says, glancing back at me, the businesses quickly fading into row houses that extend for several blocks, people stacked on top of each other like pigeons in expensive coops, a canopy of ancient trees on either side of the street keeping most of the sun off our liquid necks, sweat blooming on the small of my back, my armpits. Fernie blows through the stoplight—red—at the intersection of Ashland and Kessen Avenue. You’re crazy, man! I yell at him, following him anyway, obedient as Cinnamon, Fernie laughing, hovering over his bike, a street magician on two wheels. I’m adrift in the slipstream of his RVCA Daggers, black fabric perfectly accentuating my illicit thoughts. I could get lost in him for hours.

 

Saturday night, Fernie’s bedroom, Mario Kart 8.

Saturday night, Fernie’s bedroom, Mario Kart 8. My Subrosa Malum turned upside down on the patch of wood flooring not covered by the rug, Fernie’s Subrosa Salvador turned over next to mine. In a corner, on a stand, a Kurzweil synthesizer. 88 keys, baby, Fernie says, each time I enter his bedroom. Fernie’s parents are a lot like mine, mostly absent, treating their children more like expensive accessories than children. His father is an engineer of some kind, his mother doesn’t work, not outside, anyway. I was always a bit confused as to why my father and Fernie’s never became friends, as they are both engineers, and live two hundred feet from each other. Once, while in Father’s office, which was more like a beautiful library with a drafting table in it, a large custom-made desk next to the drafting table, the top of it a Seventeenth Century door from Seville, Spain, topped with beveled glass thick as my pinkie. I may have been fifteen or sixteen, when I felt bold enough, while standing next to Father at his drafting table, to ask why he and Fernie’s father weren’t friends. Aren’t you both engineers, Father? Yes, I believe Fernando’s father is an engineer, son, though his field is aerospace, I work in defense plastics. I really don’t have time for friends, I’m on an on-call basis, I must be ready to leave at a moment’s notice—you know all this. And sometimes, son, it isn’t good to mix with others of your own kind, it tends to… ghettoize you, you might say. I want to be known for my work, not my associates. Do you understand?

 

Too young for her

I still don’t get why you and Nicole never hit it off. Imagine if you two got married or something, that would be kinda weird but kinda cool, you’d be my bro in law. Bro, I’m too young for her, but it’s not like I didn’t want to. Remember that time Nicole was on the varsity volleyball team, she was like seventeen or something? We were freshmen. We were sitting on the bleachers, and I was totally tenting a chubby watching her, I think your mom was right there with us. I was trying to think of stuff so it would go away. I remember you once told me to think about sharks attacking people or something to make a chubby go away but it was totally not working, and then Nicole fell on the floor, and I was like dayyum—I almost creamed my jeans right there. You probably went home and jerked off afterwards. Well, what else are you supposed to do? It’s morally wrong to waste a hard-on, bro. That’s true. I couldn’t stop thinking about her on the floor and it was so wrong because your mom was like right there. I don’t remember that. Oh, believe me, bro, I do.

 

Tupperware Stuffables. More gazelle than boy. Enter the Dragon

We multiplayer Mario Kart 8 for a bit, but I’m quickly bored, my thoughts drifting uncomfortably to John Orrs’ bedroom, a saucer-eyed ten-year-old boy whose innocence disappeared inside someone’s mouth, and Grand Theft Auto holds no appeal… I want to do something that requires little movement, so I can be physically closer to Fernie, without him suspecting my true motives. Hey brother, we should watch a movie. Fernie had an old machine and tons of DVDs. What do you want to watch? I scan the black storage shelves bookending his flatscreen, my eyes landing on Enter the Dragon. Hey man, Bruce Lee! Let’s watch this! Good choice bro, I haven’t seen it for a while. Hold up, I’m gonna change into my peejays before we start watching it, Fernie says, opening the middle drawer of a five-drawer chest of drawers near his bed. He frisbees a clean T-shirt onto his bed, opening like a dark flower when it lands to reveal the Nirvana smiley face with the eyes exed out, the exact same T-shirt I have, the shirts we bought at the mall together when we were fifteen. Ahh man, if I had known you were gonna wear your Nirvana shirt, I would’ve worn mine, too. Nah, bro, no copycats. Fernie tosses a pair of dark green pajama bottoms onto the bedspread, magically landing next to the shirt. I should’ve been a first round NBA draft, he says, laughing, closing the drawer with his butt. He toes off his Vans like I do, his black socks kinda grubby. I guiltily recall spying on him a few weeks earlier. Without any fanfare he pulls his dirty shirt over his head, basketball tossing it into a hamper next to the chest of drawers, toe-walking his RVCA Daggers off in a comic strut until they’re bunched around his knees, bending slightly to work them over the knobs of his kneecaps, and suddenly he is standing before me, his back to me, wearing only black socks and black boxer briefs, his muscular cinnamon twist body more gazelle than boy. His RVCA Daggers gathered at his feet, he kicks them off, hurtling them across the floor, where they settle in the general vicinity of the clothes hamper. I am momentarily entranced by the treasure trail below his navel. Hey bro, are you gonna put on your peejays so we can watch the movie or what? You’re all looking at me like you wanna visit your favorite city in Vietnam, Phukabut. Embarrassed, walking sideways towards my backpack. Yeah, of course—but I thought Phukabut was your favorite city, homo. Bro, I got so many girls all over me I need to wear flypaper, Fernie says, busting over his own joke, and I realize I could be in his room with him forever and my life would be complete. You are smooth with the girls. Like baby powder, Fernie says, hopping on one foot to adjust a sock. All the girls want this monster dick, Fernie says, grabbing his crotch. I remove my Catholicized pajamas from my backpack, suddenly feeling childish, my pajamas not as exciting as Fernie’s green flannel bottoms and Nirvana T-shirt. Hey man, how long have you had those peejays, Fernie says, giggling. In all the time we’ve been friends, it’s never been in his nature to make fun of me, or criticize me for anything, though he does like to tease. A long time. I like them because they’re soft. That’s cool, bro—they have your mom written all over them. I quickly inventory his armpit hair as he’s pulling his shirt over his head. What’s so dumb is I have the same exact T-shirt at home, two hundred feet away, tucked into my Danish chest of drawers, the bureau Mother bought me after Nicole left for university. You need furniture suitable for a young man, not something passed down from your sister. I am beyond disappointed because we could’ve been matching, if it wasn’t for my stupid overcontrolling mother. I have another Nirvana T-shirt Fernie doesn’t have—Nicole bought me a freaky In Utero shirt for my sixteenth birthday, the one with the see-through anatomical model on the front, I remember it because we were at the mall together and she bought it for me out of nowhere, it was such a surprise, I almost cried over it, just this weird uncontrollable sadness, but happy at the same time. We ate a slice of pizza from Pizza Belly after she bought me the shirt, sitting across from each other at the food court, my brand-new birthday Nirvana T-shirt in a shiny plastic bag tucked at my side, one of the last good memories I have of Nicole, right before she left for university. As my bones grew they did hurt, they hurt really bad. I tried hard to have a father, but instead I had a dad. Yeah, these peejays are totally my mom. Obs I wouldn’t have chosen them. Fernie pats my back in mock consolation. It’s ok brother, you’ll be outta fourth grade in no time. Once I’m dressed in my pajamas, my socks still on, Fernie loads Enter the Dragon into the player. He half-turns to glance at me. Hey bro, can you crack the window? I’ll love you forever. I walk to the window, thumb the latch—it’s locked—did he suspect someone at his window a few weeks back? And elbow the sash two inches. You can lounge in my beanie if you want, Fernie says, pointing to the huge grey sherpa bean bag chair in the middle of the room, and the gentle look in his eyes indicates this is the greatest gift a friend could give, the donation of sacred space. Fernie grabs a dirty bath towel from the hamper and rolls it into a smoke snake, then lays the smoke snake across the threshold, covering the gap between the floor and the door from end to end. Where you gonna sit? On the floor—better viewing area, it’s like you’re at the movies, Fernie says, laughing, minus the hot girl at the concession stand. How big is your screen? Seventy-seven inches. Damn. Mother would never let me have a screen that big. Yeah, but you have that beta Blip channel, don’t you? Doesn’t it come with its own special screen? Yeah, it does. How big is it? I don’t know, like forty-eight inches or something. Damn bro that’s like bathroom size. Do you get any good movies on it? You can get whatever you want. Even porn? Yeah, even porn, but my mom has this stupid antiporn filter on it. Damn, that sucks. I just use my handheld. Yeah, me too, I say, laughing. Where are you gonna sit? On the floor man, I already told you. You’re such a space cadet. Fernie shines his knucks on my hair—clank clank clank—is there anybody in there (laughing) I’ll sit there, too, moving next to him. You don’t want the beanie? Nah, I’m good. Fernie loads the DVD, rheos the lights, his waking his mushroom nightlight. In the trippy orange-blue darkness, Enter the Dragon begins. Fernie half leans against his bed, raising himself up using his knees as a wedge before completely unfurling across the mattress, wrestling with the hideaway roll top panel in his headboard, his fingers stalactites stretching to meet the wood, his pajamaed butt inches from my face. Secret compartment, he says, looking back at me, giggling. When he lands back on the rug, next to me, he opens his hand—voilà—magically producing his mini green Stuffables Tupperware stash box. Aww yeah baby, the Stuffables stash. Hey, can you pause it while I load the pipa? Fernie’s pipe is nestled amongst the greenery, a handheld nursery. What’s tonight’s flavor? The girl at Biodome † called it Banana Bread. Are you ready for a trip to your favorite bakery, man? Fernie loads the pre-ground greenery into the bowl, thumbing it tight—hold it for a minute—squirreling back up on his legs, impossibly twisting his body, warm licorice, reaching into the headboard’s roll top storage area, swiffering the surface with his hand in the dark until he finds his lighter. I can’t believe your mom bought you a roll top headboard, it’s like she knows you’re a stoner, bro. She didn’t even buy it man, it belonged to my nana. I inherited this stoner’s treasure chest from my nana, can you believe it? What does Melissa have? She’s got everything Hello Kitty. It’s like her and Nicole are related. Oh yeah yeah, that’s right… Once Fernie has the lighter, I hand the pipe back to him, a multicolored glass wand terminating in a purple bowl, its innards black with use. Nah, brother, you first. Fernie presents the fresh pipe to me as if he’s handing me his firstborn. I lip it, strike the wheel, thumb the carb, green blackening, brightening to orange, puff puff puff like a tweeded old college professor in a velveted study, inhale deeply, holding it in like a first date before blowing grey blue smoke. Blow it to the window, man! Fernie instructs, giggling. Sorry. Fernie unpauses the remote and Enter the Dragon returns to us. I pass the pipe to Fernie with the same love he showed me. What’s on your arm? Just a girl’s name. Like a fake tattoo? No, it’s Sharpie. You marked up your arm? It’s just Sharpie, it’ll come off. What about your mom? My mom won’t see it. Who is she? Just a girl. I use this perfect opportunity to grab Fernie’s forearm, holding it before me for inspection, his skin a defibrillator electrifying my heart, somehow knowing this one moment, holding my friend’s arm, would be the highlight of my life. Yeah, but who? The girl from Biodome. You’re trying to get with the girl from the dispensary? Well, I figure if we start dating, she’ll be my gateway to free weed, he says in all seriousness, before he loses it, cracking up. What is she, like twenty-five or something? Yeah, something like that, but maybe she’s ready for my big young monster dick. You’re crazy. Gimme my arm back, Fernie says, laughing. He hits the pipe, laughing coughing, blowing nose bubbles. Too much lung butter, he says, thumping his chest. His eyes, deeper than the Pacific. I am swimming in them, the cannabis haloing my emotions. Why are you looking at me like that? Like what? Like you want my pipe. You’re too stoned. I fold my hands into my armpits like a jilted girlfriend, then crawl my way towards my 7-Eleven plastic bag. Don’t get mad, bro—no girl will ever come between us, I promise. I’ve known you since like, forever. We’re like brothers, man—chill out. I’m not mad. That’s good, maybe pull your head out of your ass, then? Hey brother since you’re over there can you please please please grab me a bag of Doritos… I’ll love you forever. I can’t walk right now, I’m totally schiavoed. Fernie is in hyena mode as I’m digging through our collective buried treasure, and just like that everything is wonderful again. Back at his side, I hand him the Doritos. Wanna hit this again, Fernie asks, before I crack this bag of magic open, holding the Doritos bag under my nose. I’m on my hands and knees, panting like a dog. Down, boy! He fingers the pause on the remote, grabs the Stuffables stash box. We’ll get to Bruce, Fernie says, laughing. Sure, I say, but I don’t really care about the movie, just being close to him is enough.

† Fernie and Joey are both seventeen. I’m assuming they’re using fake IDs

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. This weekend the blog goes into welcome mat mode on behalf of the new book by James Nulick, writer’s writer (at least amongst many of the writers I know and respect) and a longtime if more recently MIA commenter/contributor to this very blog. Not to mention being a book from the very admirable, renegade publishing venture Publication Studio. Please delegate some of your time over the next 48 hours to see what the book is all about and possibly spring for it, if you’re convinced. Thanks, and big thank you to Publication Studio and Mr. Nulick himself. ** Misanthrope, Maybe you can read both of them at the same time and blow your brain’s fuses. Monday being both Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday and the day that hell’s ugliest American minion accepts the throne is proof that coincidence is random and meaningless. Enjoy, haha. ** jay, Hi. Oh, did I put that ‘Jurassic’ movie on my mid-year faves list? Strange. I mean it’s fun and all, but nothing more than that. I’d watch the last ‘Planet of the Apes’ movie, which made my full year list, first if you want to sink into a recent blockbuster. ‘Inland Empire’ is my favorite Lynch, as I suspect I already said. Yeah, his influence is massive. Someone somewhere wrote that what other director has an adjective named after him wherein everybody knows what Lynchian means. Micro/macro porn animation looks really ridiculous and way not sexy (well, unless you’re so into it that silly representations are enough), no surprise. Thanks for the successful third link attempt. It was worth it, yes! Have a great weekend, man. ** _Black_Acrylic, She has the craziest mouth ever. ** PL, You’ll get accustomed to it, you will. It’ll never quite be water off your back, but it won’t hurt much. In our case, yes, we have to get permission for all the music in our films and usually pay for the use. If it’s a copy to the degree that it’s more an homage than a copy, you can probably get away with it. Especially for a short film, yeah. I think it’s also a matter of the length of the music. I know in the US if you sample a track and the sample is under a certain short length, it’s usually okay. Hence all the Rap borrowings. I’m pretty okay with piracy. There are boots of most of my books out there and torrents of Zac’s and my films, and I’m just happy that people can access the work. My favorite Lynch? ‘Inland Empire’. My favorite film in general? Bresson’s ‘The Devil, Probably’ with Hollis Frampton ‘Straits of Magellan’ a close second. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Yeah, very sad, a huge loss. Urgh. Oh, that’s cool: another love from ‘Twin Peaks’. How about one more … ‘I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method… is love. I love you Sheriff Truman,’ G. ** Steeqhen, Hi. It’s weird how when someone dies their importance and influence on you comes to you in a rush and how while they were alive it was just understood, with no need for recognition, a given. ’90s dreampop and trad Irish’: curious. If you get your parents to sit all the way through ‘Inland Empire’ with you, they are stellar parents. But I think I remember you saying yours are. ** alex, Hi, alex! Lovely to see you albeit on such a sad occasion. Congratulions to you (and them) about The Vermin inclusion. Awesome! Online as in can-be-read online, or is it an order-only thing? Everyone, Mega-talented alex has a story, which he intriguingly describes as ‘a kinda mutation of Cindy Lee’s 2020 album Cat o’ Nine Tails’, in the new issue of the exciting magazine The Vermin, and you can get yourself a copy here. That party sounds pretty much like a blast naturally. The back of the knee is such an underrated spot on the body. My weekend is pretty utilitarian. I have to gather materials and documents for a visa I’m applying for, and I have to start making queries re: a sales agent for Zac’s and my new film. Mostly that. Hopefully finishing my current video game. I hope the tattoo is sneaky and beautiful. ** Bill, Yeah, the Dern Day was a total coincidence. I almost pulled it, but then I thought, what better time, etc. I hope your weekend is well-balanced between fruitful input and output. ** Steve, Oh, right, I read her ‘TP’ book back in the day, and I do reminder it being surprisingly good. No, is the Melissa Anderson book worth a read? I’ll turn around ask you if you’ve seen that documentary film about Lynch’s relationship to ‘The Wizard of Oz’? I think it’s called ‘Lynch/Oz’ or something? I’m wondering about it. ‘The Stepford Wives’! Has it been restored or something? I just have a bunch of grunt work this weekend as I just explained to alex. Anything else will be gravy. Stay warm. ** James, Dude, you need to watch more Lynch. You haven’t even seen ‘Twin Peaks’? Anyway, a mere suggestion. Happy weekend to you too, non-nicknamed one. I like the sound of your day, even the ‘inappropriate’ Sade intrusion into their presumably vanilla consciousnesses. Fiction is ultimately a far greater world than that which has been placed before us in 3D and all smelly and consequential. And that includes daydreaming. All books I really like are also drugs. If a book doesn’t trip me out, it hasn’t done its job. ‘Gold Star for Robot Boy’ Oops, sorry about the loading problem. Thank goodness for Facebook, I guess. Twelfth Night at Stratford-upon-Avon sounds mighty impressive at least from the perspective of one to whom the words Stratford-upon-Avon signify quality for some reason. Have fun. ** Tyler Ookami, Haha, so true! And agreed, agreed. ** HaRpEr, Rimbaud always had the right idea. Well, except maybe when he quit writing, but maybe he was prescient even then. So true, that monologue. Thank you for rebuilding it in my imagination. Completely agree about Burroughs/Cronenberg. The only Cronenbergs I like more than just a little are ‘Videodrome’ and ‘Dead Ringers’. Agreed too about good films based on great books requiring a serious deep reinvention of the material and how it works. But I still think why. Why adapt when you can invent from scratch. Why not just leave the book alone? It doesn’t need you, filmmaker. Use your own ideas. Etc. ** Dan Carroll, Hey, Dan. Very nice report/read on ‘Blue Velvet’ and her otherwise. Err, actually, no, I don’t like Cy Twombly’s work. I respect your love for him, and so many smart people’s love for him, so I’ll leave it at that. What is the art studio collective thing? What would your involvement be? Sounds interesting in theory and, yes, potentially really useful and inspiring. When will you hear back? Great luck with that, if you need extra luck. ** Right. You people and James Nulick have a hot date this weekend, so do make the best of it, whatever that means. See you on Monday.

Laura Dern’s Day

 

‘It’s no secret that the last few years have been good to Laura Dern. From Enlightened to Wild to Certain Women to Twin Peaks: The Return to Big Little Lies to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, there’s been no shortage of reminders that she’s an actress of extraordinary range and ability, one just as capable of tremendous subtlety as she is delivering crushing moments of overpowering emotion. Dern has recently come to specialize in standout supporting roles, but she takes the lead in The Tale, directed by Jennifer Fox and based on Fox’s own experiences. Dern plays Jennifer, a documentary filmmaker forced to reevaluate her past and interrogate her own memories when her mother (Ellen Burstyn) unearths a creative-writing assignment Jennifer wrote at 13, a thinly veiled account of the sexual abuse she experienced at the hands of a track coach (Jason Ritter) with the cooperation of a trusted riding instructor (Elizabeth Debicki).

‘Dern gives an extraordinary, constantly shifting performance at the heart of a film that never lets viewers find their footing. Previously confident of framing her experiences as that of a teen edging into womanhood by taking an “older lover,” she becomes unmoored when shown a picture of herself at that age, and has to reconsider how much of a child she was — and how little choice she had in what happened. Slowly, she becomes determined to piece the past together, even if it means reworking the story she’s told herself for years.

‘It’s the latest in Dern’s still-growing category of revelatory performances and, like the others, it’s possible to trace its roots back to a turning-point performance. Some actors have careers easily divided into two phases: before and after a particular role. The film that gave Dern that role, Wild at Heart, hasn’t been very easy to see in recent years. Released in 1990, the David Lynch film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and hit American theaters at the height of Twin Peaks’ popularity. But it’s not currently available on any streaming services and has been in and out of print on physical media for years. (It will receive a long-overdue Blu-ray release from Shout! Factory, a company with a good track record of handling movies that might otherwise fall through the cracks, in August.) But revisiting the film confirms it was the role that pointed Dern toward a future playing complex, conflicted, difficult-to-defeat women.

‘In Wild at Heart, she’s Lula Fortune, one half of the film’s central couple, lovers on the run from the law, and from Lula’s overbearing mother Marietta (played by Dern’s real-life mother, Diane Ladd). Nicolas Cage plays the other half of the couple, Sailor Ripley, a tenderhearted roughneck with an Elvis fixation and snakeskin jacket that, as he’ll tell anyone, doubles as a “symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.” It’s a funny line, but one that points to a divide between the two performances that becomes more conspicuous as the film goes along: Cage’s works mostly in references, symbols, and gestures. Dern plays Lula as a full-bodied character, one driven by emotions — be it lust, fear, or sadness — she doesn’t always know how to control. That’s not a knock on Cage, who’s terrific in the film. But he, and the film as a whole, need Dern’s humanizing work to stay grounded.

‘Lynch adapted Wild at Heart from a novel by Barry Gifford, but inevitably brought his own obsessions to it, swirling in images from The Wizard of Oz, classic road movies, and other instantly recognizable references. In the 2004 making-of documentary Love, Death, Elvis & Oz, Gifford says Lynch “saw Sailor and Lula a bit like Elvis and Marilyn Monroe, these very American icons.” From the resulting film, Cage ran with the suggestion, channeling Elvis (or as Sailor calls him, “E”) at every moment. Dern went her own way.

‘Apart from a head of blonde hair, there’s little of Monroe in Dern’s Lula, a passionate 20-year-old southerner incapable of hiding her feelings. She shares none of Monroe’s breathy flirtatiousness or her expertise at adapting a veneer of naïveté. Lula’s honest to the point of guilelessness. She hates her mother and loves Sailor, and Dern’s expressive face makes no attempt to hide these feelings. Keeping anything to herself is against Lula’s nature.

‘This sometimes puts her at odds with Lynch’s film, an often stunning, sometimes muddled collection of ideas whose mix of horrific violence and dark humor often feels out of balance, especially when compared to the director’s best work. Dern, however, remains surefooted. Her Lula is open and earnest even when Wild at Heart seems too self-aware for its own good, staying real and true in the midst of all that artifice and giving the film a beating heart, whereas an actress who’d stayed true to Lynch’s original Monroe-inspired vision might have seemed like just another prop. Not that this put her at odds with the director. “She’s the best actress I’ve ever worked with,” Lynch says in the making-of doc, and he’s made good on that praise by working with her again and again.

‘It was, to that point, the role of a lifetime, a break with what she’d done before and a step forward to what she’d do in the years to come. Dern had often been good before. She’s memorable in 1980’s Foxes, showing the dark side of teen-dom, and the cult favorite Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. She’s better still in Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’s much-anthologized short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, and Blue Velvet, her first pairing with Lynch. Both cast her as an innocent getting dragged into experiences she’s not ready to face, but Lula is more complicated. She’s already seen some of the horror the world has to offer, revealing to Sailor that, shades of The Tale, she was raped at 13 and describing her father’s death by incineration. That she remains open to life and uncompromising in her desires becomes, largely thanks to the strength of Dern’s performance, the film’s central story. She commandeers the movie for its own good. There was no fading into the background after that.

Wild at Heart led to opportunities she didn’t have before, and continued to inform her work. She called on her ability to play frank sexuality with Rambling Rose a year later. There’s more than a little of Lula’s wildness in Citizen Ruth’s Ruth Stoops. More recently, working with Lynch again, she delivered a deft performance as Twin Peaks’ Diane, making a character referenced but never seen in the original series into a fully realized creation who, like Lula and The Tale’s Jennifer, had to learn how to live on the other side of a traumatic experience. Dern never gives the same performance twice, but her performance in Wild at Heart that opened up the other opportunities. Recalling his conception of Lula, Lynch has said “bubble gum was a key element.” Dern became the actress we know today when she decided to make that bubble pop.’ — Keith Phipps, VULTURE

 

____
Stills
















































































 

____
Further

Laura Dern Network
Laura Dern @ Twitter
Laura Dern @ IMDb
Laura Dern, Angela Bassett Reflect on Their Own #MeToo Experiences
LAURA DERN ON THE BRILLIANCE AND HUMANITY OF BARBARA STANWYCK
‘I like to be a little bit of a rebel’
Laura Dern’s House in Los Angeles Is a Film Buff’s Dream
LAURA DERN FINALLY GETS TO BE COMPLICATED
I Also Look Like Laura Dern
The Long, Varied Career of Laura Dern
LAURA DERN IS HAVING THE BEST YEAR ANYWAY
“Entre David Lynch et moi, c’est un mariage artistique”

 

_____
Extras


An Evening with Laura Dern


Laura Dern Wins Best Supporting TV Actress at the 2018 Golden Globes


Diane Ladd, Laura Dern and Bruce Dern receive Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

 

_______
Interview

 

GARY INDIANA: Where did you go to school?

LAURA DERN: Here in Los Angeles, in the Valley. A very college-preparatory high school. Before that I went to a Catholic school. The private school was good—the teachers wanted all of us to have the freedom to think for ourselves. The education was good at the Catholic school, but you only got that one ideology.

INDIANA: I went to a Catholic school in New Hampshire, which was scary.

DERN: Private boarding schools and Catholic schools on the East Coast are something. Choate really ruined my father’s life. He’s had nightmares about Choate every since he went there. Treat Williams, who’s a good friend, went to Kent School, in Connecticut. The stories I’ve heard about those places—didn’t you have one nun who was just the worst nightmare?

INDIANA: Sister Mary Jude, who should’ve been a truck driver in some real redneck town. She loved to beat kids up, with this thick triangular ruler, right across the hand.

DERN: I don’t know how people parent in this day and age, just before I came here I read an article in a doctor’s office about Raymond Buckley in Los Angeles magazine. It was so frightening what he felt was appropriate when dealing with preschool kids. I don’t know what the whole story is there.

INDIANA: No one does. After reading articles by Dorothy Rabinowitz in Harper’s and by Debbie Nathan in The Village Voice, I’d almost become convinced that these preschool molestation cases were being fueled by antifeminist hysteria. And they probably are, but when I got out here, I saw people I worked with at Legal Aid in Watts 15 years ago, some of whom worked on the McMartin preschool case, and they said it’s all true. Even the animal mutilations.

DERN: It’s terrifying that it occurred, if it did, but it’s caused a real shift in awareness. People are more willing to talk about child abuse. When this whole McMartin thing went down, I was at a dinner party with about eight people, all from different backgrounds and from all over the world. And every single person at that table had had some weird experience as a child. I think everyone has—whether it was with a babysitter, or playing doctor, but usually when some older person tries to come in contact with you. It’s amazing how much we block out. Obviously, the urge to molest children comes from some experience the person has had as a child, and he or she never worked it out. Watching Raymond Buckey describe how he loved working with the kids, I could sense this 11-year-old who’d stopped and never grown further on a sexual level. He denied that anything happened, but even the way he described loving to play with the kids and the toys and so on, it was…weird. It’s a strange world, as David Lynch would say.

INDIANA: But don’t you think it’s weird that when society unearths something that’s been repressed for a long time, suddenly everyone’s pointing the finger at everyone else instead of figuring out how to deal systemically with it? Last night on the news, they gave figures for child-beating in America, something like two million children every year.

DERN: It’s so frightening. Even if you’ve gone through an average childhood, you have girlfriends who get pregnant and then have to choose whether or not to have a child. And this stuff certainly makes you think about what you’re taking on. I mean, I certainly want to have children, but I could never do it until I felt I loved myself enough, and wanted to bring someone into the world because I had some kind of security. I’m starting to, but I still have a lot to learn. I just have two cats, and when I’m in a bad mood—you know, it would be very easy to throw a cat across a room.

INDIANA: Years ago I was living with somebody and I kept telling him, “I want a dog, I want a dog.” And he said, “The first thing you’d do, if you got really hysterical, you’d throw that dog right out the window.” And I realized it could very well be true. You just don’t know what you’d do.

DERN: The thing I love about acting is, whatever character you play, it gives you the chance to expose another side of yourself that maybe you’ve never felt comfortable with, or never knew about. Not that every character is you, but there are underlying emotions that everybody has. I feel that movies are gifts that come to you, and there are no accidents in what you end up doing. I study Jung, who talks a lot about the shadow side, the repressed side. I think the scariest thing in the world is repression. There’s plenty to be idealistic about, but we have to be aware of all sides of ourselves, and there are definitely shadows in all of us.

INDIANA: How do you find what you need to work on in a part? I’m thinking of Connie in Smooth Talk and that mind-boggling scene where you’re inside the house and Treat Williams is outside talking to you through the screen door, and it’s really Connie’s passage from childhood to being a woman.

DERN: It’s funny you bring up that scene, because there’s a similar scene between myself and Bobby Peru, Willem Dafoe’s character, in Wild at Heart. In Cannes, people kept comparing those two scenes and asking why I’m always half-seduced and half-raped in my movies. I’m sure I don’t know. But whether a movie part comes to me or I seek it out, there’s always this journey to darkness through light, or vice versa; that element has been in almost everything I’ve done. In Smooth Talk it was a much more intuitive search—I was only 17 at the time, and I wasn’t aware, as women are when they get a little older, that there’s always a side of a woman that likes a man from the other side of the tracks. We all have an attraction to what’s different from us. Connie and Lula and I all share something, namely that we all want to be loved or accepted in a love relationship or family relationship, whatever; but we all bring our baggage with us in terms of how we expect that love. Connie has such a need to be found attractive by a grown-up man, and there’s that feeling of wanting to break away from mother and say, “I’m a woman now.” A couple of years before I made that film, I certainly had a lot of those feelings. My transition was much calmer, but I tried to use those dynamics in making the character.

Wild at Heart made a few people angry—they thought I was exploiting women by showing that when a woman says no she really means yes—that Lula’s repulsed by Bobby Peru, yet she wants him. I don’t feel that way at all. In Wild at Heart I tried to find the essence of myself and Lula, what we shared; so the scenes with Bobby Peru became even more intense and connected. I had dreams the night before I did that scene which revealed why the character does what she does. The more conscious I become about these different sides of myself, the more I can contact each side of the character.

INDIANA: Those scenes also seem connected by the fact that the audience projects onto them a greater physical threat than is actually there.

DERN: It’s amazing, too, how many people said after seeing Smooth Talk, “Well, obviously he raped her.” I think he actually did just take her for a drive. I also think both Lula and Connie are in control in those scenes. The line I find fascinating in Smooth Talk—when I come out through the screen door and Treat says, “Come on, you gonna come out of your daddy’s house, my sweet blue-eyed girl?”—is when I reply, “What if my eyes were brown?” It’s sort of “fuck you,” in a way. It’s like Connie’s saying, “I’m in control of this, I’m in the driver’s seat.” Maybe she says it out of fear, to protect herself, but on some level she is controlling it.

INDIANA: In Wild at Heart, though, doesn’t Bobby Peru force Lula to say, “I want you to fuck me”?

DERN: Well, with Lula, some people will say, “My God, he raped her.” But the bottom line is, she never touches him. And Lula has an orgasm. She wins! She gets off, and he gets nothing. What’s devastating to her is that he thinks he’s won her, so she’s afraid for her boyfriend, Sailor. She gives Bobby Peru what he wants on the verbal level, saying what he wants her to say, out of general fear. But at the same time, she stays in control. It’s a battle, that scene.

INDIANA: You were fantastic as the blind girl in Mask. I was completely convinced by you, even in the scene where Eric Stoltz gives you different things that are hot and cold, to explain what colors are—it could easily have turned into saccharine, but it really worked.

DERN: Thank you! I think it’s interesting that there’s always a dark cloud hanging over my character, in every movie. Even in Fat Man and Little Boy, where it’s a real dark cloud. In Mask, it’s more the judgment of others, but it’s still a threat. Sandy in Blue Velvet is the archetype of that. David Lynch says, “If you wanted to buy a bottle of innocence as a shampoo, you’d buy Sandy in Blue Velvet.” Lula, I guess, is a bottle of passion-flavored bubble gum.

INDIANA: You always play characters embedded in difficult family relationships. In Wild at Heart it’s this demented mother; in Mask you have these disapproving parents. Did some of those parts come to you because you started acting so young, or are you naturally attracted to them?

DERN: Maybe it’s some kind of karma. I certainly don’t seek that out. In fact, I hadn’t really thought about that, but you’re right. I’m very connected to my own family, and maybe I like to explore the feelings that come up in families. I’m fortunate that my parents taught me to look further into why I might feel a certain way; it was normal to expose things. When I started dating I had relationships with people who came from families that weren’t at all artistic or whatever, and they didn’t understand how to communicate. I find that so boring.

INDIANA: What do you think the difference is between the way you went into acting, as opposed to someone who didn’t have it in their background? You came into it from inside rather than outside.

DERN: I never had a misunderstanding of what it was about. Unfortunately, overall, movies are a conglomerate. People buy and sell people in this business, which can get really ugly unless you have the right set of values and understand why you’re doing it. Luckily, I was raised by people who’d already gotten to that point, and seen all the yuck stuff—which is probably why they originally didn’t want me to act. I also understood the difference between getting a part at a Hollywood party and really getting a job. I knew you had to go in and audition and maybe then they’d hire you, and that’s where you start. I also had a good understating about press: that it’s the actor’s responsibility to publicize his or her films, that the press can be fun, that it’s not about hyping yourself into stardom or trying to sell yourself as a hot ticket. I think a lot of young actors now are getting caught up in that. And it’s very easy to get caught up in. there’s a hype going on now that I haven’t seen in years, and it’s actually more about press than it is about an actor’s work or what films they’ve been in.

 

_______________
23 of Laura Dern’s 101 roles

________________
Martin Scorsese Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is a American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Robert Getchell. It stars Ellen Burstyn as a widow who travels with her preteen son across the Southwestern United States in search of a better life, along with Alfred Lutter as her son and Kris Kristofferson as a man they meet along the way. It is Martin Scorsese’s fourth film. Director Martin Scorsese cameoed as a customer while Diane Ladd’s daughter, future actress Laura Dern, appears as the little girl eating ice cream from a cone in the diner.’ — collaged


Laura Dern’s Cameo in “Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore” as a Child

 

________________
Adrian Lyne Foxes (1980)
‘”When I got the part in ‘Foxes,’ she recalled, “I was in seventh grade, and I went away to shoot for two weeks. When I came back, the kids hated me. I had a best friend who never spoke to me again. She said, ‘You only got the part because your parents are Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd.’ It was very depressing. Jealousy is a scary thing. And teachers were jealous too, I think. They would say, ‘You’re off making a million dollars on a movie, and you’re going to fail this class.’ Little did they know I was making far from a million dollars. It’s tough now with my parents. There’s no jealousy or competition with them, but I sometimes feel guilty if I’m working and my parents aren’t, because I so admire them. The fact that teen movies are taking over from movies about 45-year-olds scares me and makes me angry.”‘ — NY Times


the entire film

 

__________________
Peter Bogdanovich Mask (1985)
‘The young promising actress arrives late into the film as Diana, a blind girl and something of an equestrian. Rocky has left his mother alone (for obviously the first time in his life) in order to work as an assistant at a summer youth camp for the blind. When Rocky sees her (and by extension when the camera gets a good look at her) he’s a goner. Instantly Dern’s open distinctive face, which has always been the opposite of a mask, incapable of hiding humanity, plays to the unusually specific strength of this particular movie. Because Mask is dimensional enough to allow for conflicting feelings about its characters, Dern is able to really shine in a role that would be merely decorative in a lesser film. And because Bogdanovich and his actors have created such rounded people we find ourselves suddenly split in two, protective of Rocky but also worried for this innocent girl who Rocky pursues as if he’s suddenly a threat. Through Dern’s sensitive careful work, we understand that she has as little experience and confidence about romance as he does but we also intuit that she’s yet more vulnerable, and sheltered in a way he never has been by his hard-living mother.’ — The Film Experience


Excerpt

 

_________________
David Lynch Blue Velvet (1986)
‘Laura Dern was surprised to learn that she didn’t have to read for the part—Lynch felt she was right for the role upon meeting her. But to make sure that she had chemistry with Kyle MacLachlan, who would play her love interest, Lynch conducted a crucial meeting at the fast food chain.’ — Mental Floss


Excerpt


Excerpt

 

_________________
David Lynch Wild at Heart (1990)
‘With its good and wicked witches, and references to Toto and the yellow brick road, David Lynch’s Wild at Heart is an overt, elaborate homage to The Wizard of Oz. Lula (Dern) and Sailor (Nicolas Cage) set out from Cape Fear, North Carolina, in a Ford Thunderbird, headed for the obligatory Oz of California but end up detained in the Texas hellhole of Big Tuna. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, Wild at Heart is Lynch’s first all-out comedy, but despite the prevailing tone of aggressive absurdity, it contains some of the filmmaker’s most harrowing scenes. The film also features Dern in one of her most memorable roles (at times acting opposite her mother, Diane Ladd, whose performance earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress). A striking counterpoint to her previous Lynch persona, Sandy, Blue Velvet’s paragon of youthful innocence, Lula is mature, self-possessed, and recklessly romantic.’ — filmlinc


Excerpt


Excerpt


Excerpt

 

_________________
David Lynch Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Brokenhearted (1990)
‘I knew of Industrial Symphony No. 1 because of a popular urban myth among Lynch fandom; that, while he was adapting Barry Gifford’s Wild At Heart, he actually filmed the novel’s downbeat ending before settling on the very different one the movie has, and used the discarded footage as the opening to this multimedia theatre piece. Lynch always denied this, and watching Industrial Symphony No. 1 I believe him. Yes, the opening film footage has Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern playing Southern lovers. They’re also shot against plain black backgrounds, talking in a dreamy, narcotic rhythm, lit with cold, white, non-naturalistic light. None of that resembles Wild At Heart at all, so this must be a specially-shot piece with the same actors. That said, there are so many themes and motifs from Wild At Heart and Twin Peaks floating around in here, it’s easy to see how the story gained purchase. The lyrics and imagery of this musical stage piece refer to falling, fire, car crashes and logs, Michael J Anderson plays an enigmatic key role, and Julee Cruise performs a lot of the songs while flying around on wires in a white dress, recalling Sheryl Lee at (the actual) end of Wild At Heart.’ — Graham Williamson


Excerpt


the entirety

 

________________
Martha Coolidge Rambling Rose (1991)
‘The plot in “Rambling Rose” is slight and elusive; if it were not for a framing device, it might almost have none. The movie is all character and situation, and contains some of the best performances of the year, especially in the ensemble acting of the four main characters. Laura Dern finds all of the right notes in a performance that could have been filled with wrong ones; Diane Ladd (her real-life mother) is able to suggest an eccentric yet reasonable Southern belle who knows what is really important; Robert Duvall exudes that most difficult of screen qualities, goodness, and Lukas Haas (the boy in “Witness”) brings to his study of Rose such single-minded passion you would think she was a model airplane.’ — Roger Ebert


Trailer

 

_____________
Steven Spielberg Jurassic Park (1993)
‘Laura Dern was chosen by Steven Spielberg to portray Dr. Ellie Sattler because she was a very good and honest actor. The role of Ellie Sattler was offered to a lot of actresses. Juliette Binoche was offered the role but she turned it down in order to make Three Colors: Blue. Robin Wright, Jodie Foster, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ally Sheedy, Geena Davis, Daryl Hannah, Jennifer Grey, Kelly McGillis, Jamie Lee Curtis, Julia Roberts, Linda Hamilton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bridget Fonda, Joan Cusack, Laura Linney, Helen Hunt, Gwyneth Paltrow and Debra Winger were all considered for the role of Dr. Ellie Sattler.’ — Jurassic Park Wiki


Excerpt

 

_________________
Clint Eastwood A Perfect World (1993)
‘Within its narrow, unambitious, commercial boundaries, the movie is highly watchable.’ — Washington Post


Excerpt

 

_______________
Alexander Payne Citizen Ruth (1996)
‘In Citizen Ruth, Dern is once again in over her head, albeit this time it’s not much of a head to start with, what with the paint-huffing and all. She plays Ruth, whom we first see getting humped by some string-haired loser in a flophouse, then summarily thrown out of said flophouse by said stringy-haired loser. Ruth staggers around a landscape of empty warehouses, peeling-paint homes, chain-link fences and crumbling asphalt — in life’s drawer full of sharp knives, she’s a plastic spoon, grabbing at anything that might get her loaded. Citizen Ruth was released just over 20 years ago — not only does the issue of choice its based around remain current, but its examination of how political forces use people as symbols feels prescient. It was the first full-length film by director Alexander Payne (and, for you trivia fans, the only one not to receive an Oscar or Golden Globe nomination). He followed it up with Election, another examination of politics and the blonde, although it’s very clear that Tracy Flick knows who’s pulling which levers — and it’s also very clear that her appetite for power is as strong as Ruth’s for schnapps and patio sealant.’ — Outtake


Trailer


Excerpt

 

________________
Robert Altman Dr. T & the Women (2000)
‘”Dr. T & The Women” is a very underrated film from Robert Altman. While it’s far from his best work and the comedy is much broader than his other films from the 00s, it’s still immensely enjoyable. At it’s heart, this is a film about women and how wild and unpredictable they can be. The film ends with a tornado, so the symbolism can get a bit heavy handed. Thankfully, Altman uses his trademark overlapping dialogue to great effect and he pulls out some lovely and funny performances from all the women and especially an understated Richard Gere. Like we saw with “Nashville,” “Short Cuts” and now “Dr. T & The Women,” this is a film about a city. Altman understands what makes Dallas tick as much as he got Nashville and Los Angeles. Don’t go into this film thinking it’s a romantic comedy, like many do, because it’s far from it.’ — Steven Carrier


Trailer

 

__________________
Jane Anderson The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005)
‘The power in the film comes from the disconnect between the anger and emotional violence in the marriage, and the way Evelyn keeps her dignity, protects her children, fights to put food on the table and deals with a husband she always calls “Father.” She is “Mother,” of course. She has never been outside of Ohio, never had a spare dollar in the bank, never been able to express her creativity, except through the contests. Julianne Moore plays this woman as a victim whose defenses are dignity and optimism. It’s a performance of a performance, actually: Evelyn Ryan plays a role that conceals the despair in her heart.’ — Roger Ebert


Trailer

 

_________________
David Lynch Inland Empire (2006)
‘You know, again I’ll almost repeat the same idea of liberty that comes with working with that. You’re liberated as an actor in the same way David describes. You never miss anything because you’re right there. You never miss an opportunity of being in the moment because suddenly now, not just the performance but the camera is offering that in-the-moment opportunity. You can catch anything and he can hear what the actor seemingly off camera is doing and wanna capture that and just flip around. And because of the luxury of a forty minute take, if you need it, I mean, forty minutes in the camera, that you just shoot an entire scene without ever stopping and he can get all the coverage he wants and we are staying within the moment of acting out the scene and you know, not cutting and resetting but in fact even while filming talking to me because the luxury of the lack of expense as well to say, “Let’s do it again. OK, go back to this line, let’s keep going.” And you’re just, as an actor it’s just an incredible feeling to stay true to the mood, the feeling that’s going at that given time.’ — Laura Dern


Trailer


Excerpt


Excerpt

 

______________
Mike White Year of the Dog (2007)
Year of the Dog is a quirky little art house movie with a great cast and a decent script. It is at times amusing and at other times poignant but the blend doesn’t always mix well. Half the time it is the expected Molly Shannon style of overt comedy, especially in her scenes with Regina King (who is, by the way, one of the most gifted comic actresses working today). Screenwriter Mike White (Chuck and Buck) makes his directorial debut and though the tone is at times awkward he does manage to treat a polarizing political issue with fairness. Some viewers will identify and agree wholeheartedly with Peggy’s evolution from dog lover to animal rights activist, while to others her behavior will reinforce their beliefs that some people are just plain nuts. Everyone in the movie is portrayed as flawed so in that sense it doesn’t take sides.’ — THREE MOVIE BUFFS


Trailer

 

_______________
Paul Thomas Anderson The Master (2012)
The Master, even though it’s only tangentially about L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, depicts the humiliating yet symbiotic relationship between causes and followers in the modern era, when belief systems are no longer governing frameworks but just software to be renewed and replaced. You can see it in the Master’s irritated response to Helen Sullivan (Laura Dern) who, upon reading his new book, inquires about a major difference she’s noticed: “I did note that on page 13, there’s a change. You’ve changed the processing platform question from ‘Can you recall?’ to ‘Can you imagine?’” Meanwhile, Freddie, who never really understands the Master’s methods and has just had to listen to another B.S. sermon from Dodd, beats up a longtime believer who dares to question the Master’s rambling text. Maybe this is the way Freddie deals with his doubts, by doubling down on his obedience to the Master.— Vulture


Trailer


Excerpt

 

_______________
Kelly Reichardt Certain Women (2016)
‘Delicacy, intelligence, compassion and control are what writer-director Kelly Reichardt brings to her muted but utterly involving new film, about separate women’s lives in the prairie towns of southern Montana in the United States. It features Laura Dern as provincial lawyer Laura, Michelle Williams as discontented wife and mother Gina, and Kristen Stewart as law student and teacher Elizabeth. Everything is photographed in a distinctively subdued indie-stonewash colour palette, the soundtrack and spoken dialogue are murmuringly quiet, and it’s a film that never forces its emotional effects on us. One of the opening scenes actually contains an armed hostage standoff with a crazy guy, but it’s directed so calmly it feels as if we’re watching a mild disagreement at a church coffee morning. Certain Women is a title with a tentative, open-ended quality. A random sample selection? That’s coolly at odds with the obvious fact that Reichardt is very deliberate – very certain – about what and who she wants to show on screen, and how. The “why” is up to us.’ — The Guardian


Trailer

 

_________________
Alexander Payne Downsizing (2017)
‘Less isn’t really more, but there’s an intriguing premise at the heart of Alexander Payne’s affecting and surprisingly sweet Downsizing. If we are, as our science seems to indicate, really killing the world, then maybe we should avail ourselves of any means necessary to minimize ourselves. If Norwegian scientists come up with a way to shrink ourselves to about 5 inches tall, why shouldn’t we volunteer to reduce our footprint?’ — Philip Martin


Trailer


Excerpt

 

________________
David Lynch Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)
‘On Sunday night, Laura Dern popped up on Twin Peaks, finally revealing the character she’s playing in David Lynch’s mysterious revival. Folks, it’s time to officially meet Diane, Agent Cooper’s loyal secretary—who has never been seen before in the history of the series. The long-awaited reveal takes place when Albert Rosenfield (the late Miguel Ferrer) slowly makes his way through a packed Philadelphia bar. Slowly, he walks up and sees a sylph-like woman with a blonde bob standing at the bar. “Diane,” he asserts. She turns, slowly, one hand holding a cigarette, the other resting on the base of a martini glass. “Hello, Albert,” she replies. And there you have it! Whatever image fans have held on to for the last few decades flew out the window in a matter of seconds. All along, Diane has been an icy blonde with rather kooky personal style, favoring brocade dresses, multi-colored stacked bangles, multi-colored nails, and thick, Cleopatra-esque eyeliner. This probably isn’t the long-suffering secretary everyone was imagining, though it does fit with Cooper’s previous description of her as an “interesting cross between a saint and a cabaret singer.”’ — Vanity Fair


Excerpts


Making “Twin Peaks: The Return”

 

_________________
Rian Johnson Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
‘Dern had a lot of fun working on The Last Jedi and is particularly keen to learn some more of Holdo’s past, stating “I’m eager to learn about the future — or the past — of this character only because I loved playing her so much it would be heartbreaking not to have an experience of playing her again.” It seems unlikely Holdo was intended to escape in The Last Jedi, so it might feel like a cop out if the next adventure reveals she bailed at the last moment. That said, the movie didn’t have much time to dive into Holdo’s background, so maybe there is room to explore her past. The recent canon novel Leia, Princess Of Alderaan is a prequel set before the events of A New Hope, where a young Leia first gets involved with the resistance and becomes friends with Holdo. It provides some interesting background on the friendship between the two, but it’s unknown if Star Wars IX helmer Abrams has any interest in bringing Holdo back again. Given the amount of characters he’ll have to service in the next adventure, it feels unlikely.’ — Screen Rant


Trailer


Laura Dern – Star Wars: The Last Jedi On Set Interview

 

_____________
Justin Kelly J.T. Leroy (2018)
‘This movie returns us to the strangely unrewarding story of the “JT LeRoy” literary hoax, recently discussed in Jeff Feuerzeig’s 2016 documentary Author: The JT LeRoy Story. “JT LeRoy” was the pen name, or avatar, or bogus persona created by American author Laura Albert who wrote avowedly autobiographical fiction about a young boy’s experiences of homelessness and sexual abuse – but Albert compulsively posed as the supposedly reclusive and charismatic author on the phone to a growing number of journalists and celebrity fans. Aware that “JT” would have to be produced in person at some stage, she persuaded her sister-in-law Savannah Knoop to pose in a wig and dark glasses for photo ops. This bizarre fake was eventually exposed in 2005 to the embarrassment and rage of many who had been duped, chiefly the actor Asia Argento who had solemnly bought into the phenomenon and directed a dismally bad movie based on one of the JT LeRoy books.’ — Peter Bradshaw


Trailer


Excerpt

 

_____________
Greta Gerwig Little Women (2019)
‘I found Laura Dern too contemporary (especially the highlighted hair); some of that can’t be blamed on her but on the script (such as when she tells Laurie “you can call me Marmee, everyone does.” Like ma’am not in that day and age would anyone but your daughters be calling you that) but overall the 2019 version isn’t one of my favorites – not dual casting Amy makes her younger years scenes very odd (especially since Florence Pugh has a slightly gravelly, very mature sounding voice so putting her next to a bunch of actual 12 year olds is hilarious), the costuming is all over the place, Timothee Chalamet doesn’t really show the growth that Laurie is supposed to have so he just comes across as a petulant kid the whole film, and the non-linear timeline is confusing for anyone who isn’t familiar with the books.’ — theagonyaunt


Excerpt

 

_____________
Colin Trevorrow Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
‘The movie promises yet another bigger-than-T. rex apex predator, the Giganotosaurus, destined to do battle with the unlikely underdog — though the duel is partly obscured in the background (been there, done that, I guess) until the arrival of a surprise ally. Nearly all the other species appear designed to prove Crichton’s theory that dinosaurs did not go extinct but became birds. Several of them feature primitive feathers, while others can fly. Fine, but it’s not the kind of evolution audiences are looking for from “Dominion.” Once again, the movie ends with images of dinosaurs mingling with humans, leaving us to wonder when this franchise is ever going to really engage with that idea in a meaningful way.’ — Peter Debruge


Excerpt

 

_____________
Chancler Haynes Taylor Swift – Bejeweled (2022)
‘Casting Dern in the movie required a simple ask, Swift explained: “I was like, ‘Oscar-winner Laura Dern, hello. I’ve written a script. It’s a one-scene script in which you are going to call me ‘a tired, tacky wench’ and she was like, ‘I’m down.’ Describing Dern as the “coolest,” Swift said directing the actress was “easier than anything I’ve ever done in my life.”’ — Variety


the entirety


Bejeweled (Behind the Scenes with Laura Dern)

 

 

*

p.s. RIP David Lynch. That’s really hard to believe. And by total and strange coincidence, it’s Laura Dern Day. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Thanks, yes. Lots still to do, but yes! How about a David Lynch love quote today. Windom Earle: ‘Garland, what do you fear most in the world?’ Major Briggs: ‘The possibility that love is not enough’, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Those were the good old days when students were assigned Barthes books to read. I kind of doubt that’s still a common practice. I’m sure the girls are thinking of throwing themselves at you and your hat, Ben, they’re just shy. ** Steeqhen, It would be a pretty exciting and borderline unbelievable class that would assign that Roussel book. But one can hope. Oops re: your nose. Hopefully it’s dry by now. Oh, sure, I read Rimbaud at 15 and he was my ultimate hero and role model for years. He can be so important to someone young who dreams or even plans to do earth shattering things and is stuck in a world where youthful ambitions are met with eye rolls or worse. I used to take LSD every year on his birthday. I made a pilgrimage to his grave when just out of high school, and I still have a little vial of dirt that I swiped from his grave in a place of honor in my LA apartment. The biography I mentioned is by Graham Robb. What’s your friend’s band like? I hope everybody or nobody died in the season finale depending. ** Lucas, Yeah, shocking, really shocking. I knew he had bad lung problems, but … Really hard to believe, like I said. I don’t know, I don’t think Lynch is a celebrity, or certainly not only. A great artist who almost inexplicably became that famous. Take it really easy, rest up, drink all the right things, and etc., pal. ** James, It’s totally okay and sometimes even better not to totally understand something you’re reading, at least to my tastes. I like books that are books but also drugs. Around here you definitely get a gold star, and your ass is off limits regarding kicks. It wasn’t just you: the blog had weird technical problems going on yesterday for a while. Supposedly malware that has now supposedly been removed. See you, well, on Saturday, no doubt. ** Misanthrope, ‘Stoner’ and ‘Watt’ are both A-okay in my book. And, boy, there hardly be two more different books, to boot. ** jay, Yeah, hard to accept Lynch is dead. It seems so improbable, I don’t know why. I saw him sitting in a cafe (and a legendary cafe, Deux Magots) about two years ago, and he saw me looking at him and nodded sagely. Which was cool. Oh, good, you’re one of those people who can scrape together high quality things at the last ‘moment’. Psst, me too. That will continue to serve you very well. It’s true that the only micro-macro porn I’ve seen involving sex was animation. Have the best Friday that your equipment facilitates. ** SEB BUT IN ALL CAPS BE NICE CLOUDFLARE PLEASE 🦠, Cloudflare seems to have thought you were perfectly acceptable. I’m okay, just busy with stupid visa application stuff, ugh. Thank you ever so much for that backgrounding and fill-in. That’s super interesting and will brace my imminent dive into the subject at hand. Biggest luck you need on the volunteering start. So, how was it? ** HaRpEr, Very sad, yes. I mean, really, he was pretty much the only American visionary and experimentalist filmmaker to manage to seduce otherwise mainstream film audiences and even beyond filmgoers. Everyone else I can think of is essentially a conventional artist with merely stylish ambitions. I remember being so surprised and impressed that ‘Mulholland Drive’ was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. It still seems implausible. Fingers very crossed for the funding. Many more people will always not get you than get you, at least in my experience, and eventually that becomes a kind of badge of honor. Thanks for your read on ‘Emilia Perez’. I’ll let it fade ever more into the ‘don’t bother’ category. ** Darby𓃱, Hi, D. Yeah, I heard the horrible news. Ugh. I am a Throbbing Gristle enjoyer. I was even lucky enough to see them play live. That Thomas Sayre work does look very charismatic and interesting. Awesome that you got to see it up close. The only ways I know to escape a hopeless crush is to write about it because when you put it into words the hopeless aspect can become a lot clearer and more understandable, or, if it’s sexual, to masturbate imagining sex with the hopeless crush until the idea of sex with them becomes boring. I hope your headache is long gone. ** Steve, As I said up above, no, there were actual technical problems with the blog for part of the day yesterday that have supposedly been solved now. It wasn’t just you. Yeah, Lynch, fuck. Oh, thank you a lot for the link to that documentary! Maybe I’ll start my inquiry there. Thank you! ** PL, Yes, indeed! I’m honored that ‘The Sluts’ helped a little. It’s exciting to read you being so excited about the film project! Listen, I still get accused of writing for shock value after all these years. Don’t worry about it. There are unfortunately many, many people who just can’t see writing that’s about difficult to experience things that gives those things their full power as a serious pursuit, and there’s just nothing you can do about it. That reaction used to disappoint me and piss me off, and, for a time, I thought I could make them give up their knee-jerk resistance, but then I realised there’s no way to do that. If they see red, they see red, and there’s no subtlety there to work with. I like Bataille’s work, of course. Personally, I’d recommend starting with his novel ‘The Story of the Eye’. It’s incredible. ** Justin D, Yeah, RIP Lynch, terrible news. Thank you so much about ‘MLT’. That’s so good to hear. My Thursday was just gathering materials for this visa I have to apply for, so it was kind of laborious and stressful, but I got through it, thanks. How did your Friday treat you? ** Cletus, Hey. I’ll look up ‘Pregaming Grief’. Thanks. And, yeah, extremely sucks about Lynch. Commiserations. ** Joe, Thank you, pal. Oh, mm, I would really think that it’s far, far preferable to read David and not listen to someone read him aloud. He’s really a page/writing to reader/brain kind of writer, I think. I think seeing the prose laid out before you is important to his work. Haha, no, I didn’t read the entirety of ‘Bobby BlueJacket’. Well, ‘read’. I did skim/flip through it get the whole story. But, no, the writing was not valuable, I agree, for sure. Understood about you and the Cronenberg. By the time it came out I was already clear in what I thought of Burroughs’ work and what I thought was important about it, so the visualising naturally seemed to greatly weaken it to me. And I must admit I get a little tired of Cronenberg’s insect-y body horror props before too long. Great weekend to you! ** Tyler Ookami, Yeah, re: Lynch. Well, the obvious unrealised project was ‘Ronnie Rocket’ which I think he spent decades hoping/trying to make. I don’t even know if there’s one other filmmaker with Lynch’s singularity and purity of vision making films that have any chance to reach the big audience, middlebrows included, that his work did. ** Okay. Maybe you want to help find your way out of Lynch’s death by enjoying the work he did with Laura Dern. Or maybe you just want to appreciate her work in general. Or something else. See you tomorrow.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 DC's

Theme by Anders NorénUp ↑